In which we return to the Magic Kingdom

If you have been following my blog, you know that we bought annual passes to Parc Disneyland last month, on the grounds that they would pay for themselves if we went a couple of times.

The weather here has been absolutely gorgeous lately, and last week, one of Blaise's colleagues commented that we should enjoy the nice weather while we could, because it would soon be less pleasant. Friday we talked briefly about going to Disney this weekend, but weren't sure. Then Elinor and Jeremy (friends that we met at the Jardin de Luxembourg) called to say that they were going on Saturday because they had gotten free passes that were going to expire in a week, and since we had annual passes would we like to join them?

Saturday morning I quickly planned two days of food (the grocery store is closed on Sunday, so I couldn't go shopping then) and after breakfast I ran to the ATM (at the far end of the mall) and to the Auchan. We packed PBJ and apples, plus a box of cookies and water bottles for lunch, stuffed it in a back pack, grabbed our passes and RER tickets, and headed off to the park. This time, the kids knew we were going, so they were excited too.

Once we had cleared security (which took a while, because we arrived right when the park opened) we headed for the Sword in the Stone, which was where we had agreed to meet the Avigads. Interestingly, despite the fact that they had left an hour or more before we had, we beat them there, partly because they had a longer train ride, and partly because they didn't have enough free passes for everyone, and needed to pick up a couple of actual tickets. Jeremy had gone to pick up fast passes for one of the rides, and so Blaise and I took all 6 kids over to ride Dumbo while Elinor waited for Jeremy to get back. Afterwards, they used their fast passes, while we went and picked up passes to Star Tours for everyone. (We later discovered that Cherry was too short to ride, and so Cherry and I gave our passes away to a couple who seemed to be trying to decide if they could afford to spend 2 hours(!) waiting in line.)

After lunch (they bought theirs, we packed ours), we rode Small World enroute to Star Tours. Then took the train over to Pirates of the Caribbean (which terrified Sapphire and Cherry again) and finished off by with the Haunted House (which didn't terrify anyone). Cherry was much doted on, which she loved. She's spent most of the last 3 days talking about how "hooper dooper nite Eyinoh and Dewamee's kids were to her. Wiwee wiwee nite, eden." (In case you were wondering, that translates as how super duper nice Elinor and Jeremy's kids were to her. Really, really nice, even.)